UPDATES:
Ready for Shipping: February 11, 2005
Rob has gone through the detector vac check data files in detail. Though the HEs are noisy, he can verify the presence of the beam at all roll angles for all three detectors. HI and the Bagel were also verified over the weekend. Kevin has looked in detail at the noise on the mag cal data on one of the three boxes (all three look very similar on the strip chart data). For the one that he looked at in detail, much of the noise appears to be digital pickup that is exactly the same on all three channels and is fairly easily removed. This brings our noise levels back into reasonable levels. So: we are packing up! The hope is to ship Fedex by Friday evening for a Monday arrival in Fairbanks.
Vibration Testing: January 31, 2005
Vibration testing has been completed! This is a big step forward for the launch. Everything is also seems to be going well, with the exception of the camera spinner motor. This is having some problems. Over the weekend they have also completed the deployment testing without any problems. This means that things are looking promising for the launch in a few weeks.
Test Flight Completed: January 21, 2005
Yesterday (Thursday, January 20) there was the ACS test fligt. This appears to have been a success. This is very good news for the launch. The ACS test flight was the 4th in a series of development test flights for the attitude control system subsystem. The 2nd and 3rd flights were unsuccessful (one software error, one vehicle failure) so this successful 4th flight is a great relief to all concerned. At the Wallops site in Virgina on the Delmarva peninsula things are moving along. There are four big things to get to the mission readiness review: sequence testing, vibration testing, test flight, and the deploy test. So now two of these are out of the way. Currently the vibration testing is going on, and then the deploy test will come soon after this.
Assembled Payload: January 18, 2005
This picture shows the assembled payload standing vertically. The American flag in the background gives an idea of the scale of the payload. Notice how it stands straight up because it has been balanced correctly.
Spin and Balance Test and Main Payload Detector: January 16, 2005
Much progress is being made, sequence testing has occurred and the vibration tests will happen shortly. This picture really shows how much progress has been made. It is an image of the main payload detector and the vertical test booms are deployed. Rob Michell and Kevin Rhoades are the two people in the picture.
The spin balance tests and the tests for moment of inertia have been completed. These basically involve spinning the payload vertically and horizontally to try and see if the weight is distributed evenly around both the horizontal and vertical axises.
Video of the payload:
Sequence Testing: January 13, 2005
The sequence testing has been completed. The sequence testing can be thought of as a dress rehearsal for the launch. There is an order of events when the rocket is launched. See the timeline page for more specific information. Certain events occur in certain orders, for example you have ignition of engines, then you have the payload separating from the rest of the rocket, then you have individual payloads ejecting, and more. During the sequence testing they tested whether these things could properly occur. Much of the testing was related to the electrical devices, with the researchers doing tests to find out if things would deploy when needed. Now that this has been completed vibration testing will ensue. This will be more of a mechanical test, the instrumentation is put on a table that shakes it, this tests the stability and mechanical integrity.
Here are some photos of the payload part of the rocket in a more assembled state. Towards the right side of the picture below you can see the bagel detector. As you move down the rocket, more towards the center of the image you can see the two particle free flyers.
The thing that is most readily apparent in this picture is the camera that will be looking down after the different pieces of the rocket separate. This camera actually even looks and functions in a similar way to many other common cameras. The black piece is the lens and it will pop out and look down at the aurora when the rocket is in midair.
In this final picture we see the top end of the main payload structure. The rectangular instrument is the bagel; the two cylinders are the electron and ion detectors. The four tan tracks at the left edge of the picture are the “rail that the PFF deploys on.
Building the Payload and PFF Images: January 6, 2005
Currently the payloads are being built up. These contain the instruments that will make measurements after the rocket has been launched.
Here are some photos of the payload being built up. In this picture you can see the PFFs in the middle.
The PFF slides out of the side of the rocket and then continues on, it is similar to the way a frisbee is thrown. These instruments have particle detectors in them, so as they fly they electrons enter the instruments and are measured. In this picture the PFF is in the foreground and the electron detector is in the background towards the left.
Payload Ejection: Dec. 22, 2004
Here are some frames from a video recording of a deploy test of a mocked-up subpayload ejection. The large Cornell Efield subpayloads will be ejected fore and aft along the magnetic field line. In this test, the payloads are suspended horizontally on long ropes and the subpayload dummy is being shot off sideways. You can see it swing away from the main payload on its rope, and begin to swing back. After the vibration test in January, this test will be done with the real hardware, and both the fore and aft subs will be ejected simultaneously.
Here are some photos of the buildup of the front end experiment section and the PFF subpayloads. These smaller subpayloads will be ejected perpendicular to the field line. The small PFF payloads sit inside the front section of the main payload structure, and spin out like frisbees after the payload skin is ejected.
Buildup of PFF Payloads: Dec. 17, 2004
Jim Diehl and Ted Finne of NASA/WFF work on the buildup of the PFF subpayloads for Cascades.
The electric field subpayloads for Cascades.
Integration Schedule: Dec. 13, 2004
On December 13, the Dartmouth particle detector team (Kevin Rhoads and Rob Michell) joined other experimenters (Steve Powell from Cornell and Armin Ellis from Thayer) at NASA/WFF for integration. The integration schedule is
Pre-integration: December 1, 2004
Here are a number of pictures of the electron detector. The first is just of the electron detector, the second shows the back of the electron detector, and the third shows the back of the electron detector.
Below are more pictures of the electron detector, the circuit board, and the bagel detector. The precision manufacturing of the sensors was done by Stephen’s Precision in Bradford, VT.
